What a way to celebrate 9 years of being with my awesome wife (and race photographer), as well as our independence: Running a 4-mile race with 444 448 other people on a picture-perfect day through the beautiful and historic streets of Saratoga Springs.
The second annual Firecracker 4-Mile Road Race was my 6th career distance race (all this year, of course) and my first here in Saratoga Springs (home court advantage, anyone?). The race was tons of fun and the course was great — mostly flat — cruising from City Center down Broadway to Circular to Caroline to Salem to Excelsior and back to City Center. It was a territory I know well and run often.
I finished in 28:21 (pace of 7:05.25 per mile, which was rounded up to 7:06 in the official results), which was good for 89th place overall out of 445 449 runners, and 15 of 49 in my (too broadly defined) division (men 26-35); it should’ve been 30-34, as it was in this race last year. My goal was to finish in less than 30 with a stretch goal of 28 minutes, so I’m really happy with my performance, though feel like I could’ve gone even faster, especially toward the end after the final hill up Excelsior. But that post-race runner’s remorse is fairly common for me. I know I should be really happy with a 7:05.25 pace — particularly when you consider that just 5 months ago I ran my last (and first) 4-mile race, the Polar Cap 2008, in 34:10 (pace of 8:32.5).
My pace was pretty consistent since I ran most of the way behind two girls who were likely on the Saratoga Springs High School cross-country team. In my sweet finish video below, you’ll see me on the left as I squeeze past 14-year-old Gabby (one of the two girls I was on pace with the whole way; yeah, that’s right, people — I’m as fast as a 14-year-old girl!):
Thanks, as always, to my most supportive wife (who gets all the photography and videography credit), and happy 9-year anniversary! I love you, Jen.
And a very Happy 4th of July to one and all!
1 response so far ↓
1 Joe // Jul 9, 2008 at 11:22 am
“I’m as fast as a 14-year-old girl”
Ha! I can relate! I play soccer with a bunch of over 30 folks every weekend and we get the occasional high school soccer team player (a son of one of our regulars, usually). Once I sprinted 35 yards toe-to-toe with the said young’un and won the ball right off his foot. I was all proud and full of myself for about one minute, at which time someone passed another through-ball past us and he blew past me to get it while I was still wheezing from the first run. Ah, cruel years, you do vex!